At Wolves, finding a third word and match facts from the BBC

Football is a funny old game. Just a few weeks ago many thought Manchester United would struggle for European football this season, now they're top four and three points behind us. I understand why the manager spoke about looking at who is chasing us the other week.

You see for us, the most vital thing to achieve this season is Champions League and the chances of us winning the Premier League are so slim it's almost comical to write about it. It's not impossible, Leicester did it but we need all our players to be fit and to not be distracted by other things.

So making sure we keep the gap between us and the teams below is probably the most sensible and pragmatic thing to do.

And I like sensible and pragmatic. And I think both of those words mean the same thing. Maybe I should come up with a third word. I mean, three is the magic number. I'll think of one.

And we need to be sensible tonight because we are playing the team bottom of the table and they are effectively relegated. And it's a local derby. And it's at their place. They will be up for it and they have a manager that will want to get the most out of his players. This is their FA Cup final tonight and we know what can happen in finals.

Today isn't about taking risks but it is a about imposing ourselves, about winning every ball and showing why we are the biggest side in the area and why we deserve to be in the Champions League next season. Tonight is not about going into the match assuming we're going to get three points, we need to show we want them and for 95 minutes.

There can be no excuses. There are no excuses.

Match facts from the BBC

• Wolves have won four of their last six Premier League home games against Aston Villa (D1 L1) and are unbeaten in four since a 1-0 loss in December 2020.

• Aston Villa have won three of their last four Premier League games against Wolves (L1), as many as in their previous 15 (D6 L6). They’re looking to complete the Premier League double over them for the first time since 2003-04.

• Wolves have failed to score in a league-high 15 different Premier League games this season. Only in 2009-10 (17) and 2021-22 (16) have they failed in more in a single campaign.

• Since a run of eight Premier League wins in a row between 9 November and 27 December this season, Aston Villa haven’t had a repeated result in any of their last nine games (LWDLWLDWD), last drawing consecutive games in September against Everton and Sunderland.

• Each of Wolves’ last seven Premier League wins (dating back to March 2025) have been against teams in the bottom seven of the table, with those sides having an average position of 17th. They’re winless in 17 against sides in the top half (D5 L12) since a 1-0 win at Bournemouth in February 2025.

• Wolves have conceded the first goal in 22 different Premier League games this season, more than any other side. In fact, of the 40 teams to play 200+ games in the competition, Wolves have conceded first in the highest percentage of them (59.6% - 266/446).

• Aston Villa had 66.8% possession in their 1-1 draw with Leeds last time out; Villa won their first three games when having 65%+ possession under Unai Emery but have since won just five out of 17 games when dominating that much of the ball (D8 L4), winning just one of five games in 2025-26 (D2 L2).

• Three of Aston Villa’s last four Premier League goals have been scored in the last five minutes of normal time (88th, 86th and 88th), while they have netted 63.2% of their goals in the second half of games (24/38). Only in 2015-16 (70.4%), 1999-00 (69.6%) and 2007-08 (66.2%) have they scored a higher share of second half goals in a Premier League season.

• No Wolves player has scored more than twice so far in the Premier League this season. With 27 games played, it’s the latest into a season a team has had to wait for a player to score at least three goals, overtaking Southampton from last season (MD24).

• Aston Villa striker Tammy Abraham has scored more goals against Wolves than any other opponent in English league football (6), netting a hat-trick in his first Premier League game against them with Chelsea in September 2019.